A Jovial Herb

When I was a student of herbal medicine, the principal of the school strongly encouraged us to "Always put in something into the medicine for the liver". As he explained, the liver being such an important organ in the body with its multitude of functions, whenever we are ill it is always compromised in some
way. For this reason it can always do with a boost from a liver tonic
herb. Furthermore, in helping the liver, you will get the patient to
feel much better and so make them more confident in you as a herbal practitioner.

Jupiter rules faith and confidence. He particularly recommended dandelion
for its efficacy, availability and cheapness, and the herb was a definite
favourite for him. He taught that this boost in confidence can be
invaluable to the inexperienced practitioner, for even if the rest of the
herbs in the mixture have not helped in any way, it enables a reformulation
of the prescription possible before the patient tries elsewhere.
In other words, it gives you a second chance to get it right.

The distinctive orb of
the dandelion clock,
analogous to the halos
of saints.

The principal of the school was a patriarchal figure with dogmatic fundmentalist Christian attitudes, whose life mission has been to put herbal medicine on to a sound scientific basis, replacing the mumbo-jumbo of astrology with the hard
scientific facts of pharmacology. Naturally he has been intensely
and vociferously opposed to my interest in herbs and astrology, and remains to this day the most powerful adversary to my work. As you can see, his attempts to remove herbs from their Planetary rulerships has been rather futile, for in denying any validity to astrology he has unintentionally
re-affirmed the validity to the very knowledge that he has spent so many
years negating. It is funny to think that this humble herb has been
taking the piss out of him all these years!